News

I’m happy to announce that, after several years, the third novel of The Redemption of Erâth, Ancients & Death, now has a release date!

It’s already available for preorder on both Kindle and Apple Books, and will be available to download starting November 4th, 2018.

To celebrate, I’ll be hosting a week-long launch party online both here and on Facebook, with prizes, giveaways, (hopefully) guest authors, and more! You can learn more by visiting my Facebook page, or by contacting me at satiswrites@icloud.com.

Now that NaNoWriMo is over (not that I succeeded even remotely in that endeavor), it's time for me to focus on wrapping up book three of The Redemption of Erâth. I've got twenty-two chapters completed, which means I've only got three chapters left to write. The last couple of chapters have gone surprisingly well, and I'm looking forward to the culminating events of the last few.

However, it's going to take some time. Book three has been the most difficult for me to write yet, having started it over two years ago. It's also the longest book of the series, at (currently) over 160,000 words (on a goal of 150,000). There will be much editing in this book's future, as well as (probably) some extensive rewrites, as I'm not entirely satisfied with the middle few chapters.

So what's the good news? I'm hoping to have these last three chapters done and dusted by the end of the year, at which point I'll be looking for beta-readers to go over the work in its raw, draft form and provide feedback on the plot, consistency and tone. (This will not be an edit request—I have a wonderful editor for those things.)

So let me know in the comments (or email satiswrites@icloud.com) if you have any interest in beta-reading this book; I'd be happy to provide a copy.

I just wanted to let you all know that I'll be participating in NaNoWriMo this year (or trying to, anyway), in an effort to complete the Legends and Myths of Erâth novella that I tried to start last year. I'll be posting each section/chapter as it's completed over at satiswrites.com, so you can follow along as I'm writing.

The good news is that this is more a collection of short stories than a long novel, so it doesn't particularly matter if you follow from the beginning or not; each tale should (hopefully) stand well enough on its own.

So head over here to start reading now, and let me know what you think!

I just wanted to update you all on the state of Ancients and Death, the third book of the Redemption of Erâth series. It was a real struggle to get through the past few chapters, and 19 and 20 in particular were a definite challenge. Thankfully, they're done and dusted, and I can (for the moment) put them behind me.

So now it's onward with the final part of the book: chapters 21 through 25. Chapter 21, A Retracing of Steps, is going much more smoothly, and I think a large part of this is to do with the fact that, after two entire books set in a medieval-esque fantasy world, I'm just more comfortable with that setting. The parts of this book that deal with Brandyé, in the technologically advanced, steampunk-ish world of the Ancients, has been really hard to wrap my head around and tell it in a way that doesn't seem completely out of place with the rest of the story.

Of course, I'll still have to revisit these troublesome chapters during the editing process, but at least they're written, and I don't have to write them again!

I'll be publishing chapter 20 this coming week, and hopefully chapter 21 will be complete by then. I'm really pushing to have this third book finished before December, so I can move forward with editing, and hopefully plan for a springtime launch of the book itself.

If you've been keeping up with the sporadic posts of Ancients and Death, what do you think of the switch between the advanced 'ancients' storyline and the more fantasy-style Elven storyline? Does it work? Let me know in the comments!

Checking Amazon today (as I often do), I discovered The Redemption of Erâth: Consolation has garnered another review—five stars this time! The review is reprinted below:

"A rich and evocative high fantasy novel about a boy who, unlike in Faust, is always willing good but keeps doing evil. Brandye is orphaned as a baby and raised by his grandfather, one of the few who has ever ventured outside the land of Consolation. Brandye finds he doesn't fit in amongst the others in his village, and is distressed by the oppression of the ruling family. However, when he joins a group to fight against them, things go badly. The novel breaks off just as things might be about to take a turn, although whether for the better or the worse is left for the next book to reveal.

The world- and mood-building are excellent, and set the somber tone for the book. This is not a quick read, but it is a detailed and atmospheric one, and Brandye's encounters with the enormous wolves that stalk him both in his dreams and in real life are quite spine-chilling! An intriguing beginning to a promising high fantasy series, and well worth checking out by readers who enjoy psychological fiction."

With the conclusion of Virtual FantasyCon on Facebook, The Redemption of Erâth: Consolation and Exile are back to their regular price of $3.99 on Amazon and iBooks. Thank you to all of you who picked up a copy during last week—I hope you enjoy it!

However, not all is lost, because starting today, you can enter my Goodreads giveaway to win one of ten hard copies of The Redemption of Erâth: Exile directly from me, the author! The giveaway is live here, and there are already almost 80 people requesting a copy, so enter now!

As an additional bonus, those of you who win the hard copy of Exile will receive a redemption code to download Consolation, the first book, for free from Smashwords. This way you can keep up with the entire adventure, as some people have told me the second book is harder to follow without having read the first.

So head over to Goodreads now, and try your luck—it’s free, and you’ve got everything to gain!

Okay, this is brief tonight—as a reminder, Virtual FantasyCon is going on over on Facebook all this week; stop by to chat with sci-fi and fantasy authors, learn more about their work, win giveaways, and get exclusive offers!

I was fortunate enough to participate yesterday in the epic/sword & sorcery day; today is sci-fi and time travel, and tomorrow will be fairytale/punk. Each day through next Sunday will host a different theme, and each day there will be opportunities to interact with authors and win things.

In celebration of this event, I’ve decided to lower the eBook price of all Redemption of Erâth books to just $0.99 across the board—that means you can get books one and two and the companion book History of Erâth for less than the cost of a cup of coffee!

Click to buy book one for just $0.99!

Click to buy book two for just $0.99!

These prices will be available all week, so there’s never been a better time to start an epic journey of Darkness through a land riddled with danger and fear.

Let me know what you think of the books, or the Virtual FantasyCon, in the comments—remember, interaction with authors is (for the most part) the best part of their day!

I have some exciting news, everyone! This Sunday, I'll be taking part in an online Virtual FantasyCon—a week-long Facebook event where you can contact, interact with and ask questions of hundreds of different fantasy authors, all from the comfort of your own home (if you're not at ComicCon already)! Sunday is the 'Epic/Sword & Sorcery' day, and I'll be running a booth all day long to promote The Redemption of Erâth.

Along with being able to ask me questions and find out more about The Redemption of Erâth, both Consolation (book one) and Exile (book two) will be on sale throughout Sunday for just $0.99, so there's never been a better time to download a copy and get started on the epic adventure of Darkness! Follow the link below to register/show your interest.

Additionally, I'm running a Goodreads giveaway of 10 print copies of Exile, starting October 13. Head over to Goodreads at the following link to enter the giveaway, and potentially win your very own hard copy of the second book in my series!

This past week has been remarkably productive. After quite a few weeks of thumb-twiddling, I managed to scratch out almost 20,000 words in three days. Chapters 16, 17 and 18 are complete, and hopefully chapter 19 and 20 will follow just as quick. After that, it's the final five (21-25) and book three is complete!

I honestly didn't think I'd get here. I mean, after this I still have four more books to write, but this third book has been … just awful. Not awful in that it won't be a fun read, but it hasn't been nearly as much fun to write. There have been some genuine struggles, moments when inspiration was severely lacking, and some serious doubts about the direction the book was going in.

But that's all almost over. I'm pretty confident about what's left for book three, and then I can start thinking towards the editing, the endless revisions, and—perhaps one day—the launch!

So here's to another productive weekend coming up, and seeing if another 20,000 words is possible!

It's funny to think that it's already September; autumn is coming, the days are shortening, the leaves are turning, and soon it will grow cold. It's the time of year for reading, cozied up by the fire … and for writing.

I tend to get most of my writing done through autumn and into winter. Part of this is because January is always New Year's resolution time, and my resolution is typically to write more. This leads to a burst of ferocious writing for a few months, which tends to peter out come March and April.

But autumn is just as productive for me; last year I edited and released the History of Erâth companion book, and finished editing the second book, Exile, in preparation for its launch in February. I'm looking forward to (hopefully) achieving a similar goal this year; if I can finish the third book, Ancients and Death, this autumn, I'll be able to release it hopefully some time early next year.

The only downside is that I often get very depressed in autumn, which means that my productivity can sometimes drop. The good news is I'm consistently taking my medication, and with any luck this will be the first year I make through autumn without a debilitating breakdown.

Ashamedly, I haven't done any writing this week to speak of. In my defense, I was visiting family in Portland, Oregon last weekend, and I don't have much time during the week to write. With that, here's a photo of a lovely river I visited instead of writing.

I haven't had much opportunity to write this week, as I've been pretty swamped at work with teaching and student evaluations. I did get some work done last Sunday, and I'm proud to say that Chapter 15 of Exile is completed, and the first draft is available to read over at www.satiswrites.com. I've made some progress on Chapter 16, but to be honest, I'm feeling a little lost.

It's a curious thing that this series, which started out portraying the life and struggles of one character (Brandyé), has suddenly started focusing much more strongly on what was initially a companion (Elven). Two of the five sections of the third book are entirely about Elven, without any mention of Brandyé at all. And oddly, I've found those sections easier to write. I've become more invested in the story and fate of the sidekick than I have of the main character. This is even getting to the point where I'm considering doing some terrible, terrible things with the main character, Brandyé—and having Elven become the true hero (Sam to Tolkien's Frodo, I suppose).

So now I'm back to a section of the book dealing with Brandyé, and I'm not quite sure where to go. I know where I need to end up, but I can't quite figure out a way to get there. I last left him captured by the enemy on the brink of a war that will engulf the entire world of Erâth, but I don't know how he's going to escape, and I can't think how he'll return. I'm confident I'll find a way, but it makes me feel like these sections are somehow weaker than those involving Elven.

Either way, the book will get written, and then edited, and then published. This will happen. And then, of course, I can focus on the fourth book. And the fifth … and so on and so forth. For now, all I can do is put my head down and concentrate on writing one word at a time. After all, a thousand mile journey begins with the first step.

I realize that it's been a long time since I've updated you on the status of The Redemption of Erâth, regarding either how the existing books are doing, or how far along I am in writing the third book of the series. For this, I apologize. I've been busy, but this is no excuse. Over at www.satiswrites.com, I recently said that I want to commit to writing and blogging more frequently, and the same goes here. I would like to update the world on the status of The Redemption of Erâth at least once a week, even if it's only to say that there's been no change since the week before.

With that being said, what's going on in the world of Erâth? Well, sales are spectacular: a whopping two in the past ninety days. A glorious $1.75 in my pocket. Whee! My royalty check for 2015 was $14.01. Isn't being a self-published author marvelous?

The good news is, I never started writing for the money. If I had, I probably would have picked a different genre to write in anyway—the world is pretty saturated with fantasy novels at the moment. So I'm still working on book three, Ancients and Death: and it's going pretty well. I have nearly fifteen chapters complete, standing at a massive 114,000 words—10,000 more than the completed version of Consolation. This book will be very long, and although I'm sure I'll be able to edit it down somewhat, I'm glad, because there's a lot of content to cover.

Once chapter fifteen is complete, I'll probably post it for a while on www.satiswrites.com for your reading pleasure. Until then, the prior fourteen chapters are over there as well, so you can catch up on where Brandyé and Elven have ended up (you'll never guess what's happened to Elven!).

I'm planning to have the third book finished by this fall, so I can spend some time cleaning it up, editing it, and sending it off for review. Later on, I'll probably be looking for beta readers, so keep an eye out! With any luck, I'll be able to publish Ancients and Death sometime early in 2017, which will keep a good pace with last year. If I could release a book a year, I'd be stoked!

For now, remember to check out Consolation and Exile over on Amazon—get me some sales, friends!

I have some delightful news that I’d like to share with you all today: I’ve been resuming work on the third book in the Redemption of Erâth series, tentatively titled Ancients and Death. I had stopped work after writing about nine chapters last year to focus on the release of History of Erâth and Exile, but in the past few months I’ve picked up where I left off, and progress has been fantastic.

I’m starting chapter 15 this morning, having written chapters 11-14 in only a few weeks. These are some of the longest chapters I’ve written in this series so far; I’m already over 100,000 words (the total length of book one), and there are still eleven chapters to go. Admittedly I’ll be editing some of that down post-draft, but I’m proud of the progress I’ve been able to make so far.

To celebrate my renewed productivity, I’m going to be re-posting chapters 1 through 15 over the next few weeks (one chapter each evening) for your reading pleasure, over at satiswrites.com. I would love feedback, or any thoughts or comments you might have. Bear in mind these are drafts—there may be inconsistencies, spelling mistakes, typos and more. But the story is there, and in my own opinion it’s one of the strongest I’ve written so far. I can’t wait for you to meet some of the new characters, and learn of the fates of old ones.

So get ready for tonight, when I’ll be posting Chapter One: Return to Erârün. I can’t wait to see what you think!

As part of my ongoing launch this week, I’m interviewing guest authors here and on my Facebook page. This will be a great way to discover new and exciting authors, and possibly win free copies of their work! Today’s guest is contemporary fantasy author Nils Visser, author of the Wyrde Woods series, with Escape from NeverlandandDance into the Wyrd available through Amazon now.

Q. What do you write, and what inspired you to start?

Contemporary fantasy set in a fictional woodlands in Sussex I’ve called the Wyrde Woods. My first two novels, Escape from Neverland and Dance into the Wyrd, take place in 2004 and were intended to be a complete series (Lord of the Wyrde Woods). However, a small group of avid Wyrde Woods readers are twisting my arm into writing a third installment. I then took that same setting and some of the characters for a foray in historical fantasy. Forgotten Road is the first part of the Secrets of the Wyrde Woods series and will soon be followed by the second part: Hidden Springs, my current work in progress. I’ve also written two historical fiction short novels: Will’s War in Brighton and Will’s War: Exile from Brighton. Some of the Wyrde Woods characters and the Wyrde Woods themselves feature in those but without the fantastical elements. As to writing, I took the plunge in the summer of 2014 after deciding it was now or never with regard to an ambition I’ve had since I was a kid.

Coffee, lots of it. Cider and mead follow but usually when there is something to celebrate, completed writing for example. Too much of the stuff doesn’t improve the writing itself at all.

Q. Do you have a favorite line that you’ve written? If so, what is it?

I’ve taken an old Sussex saying and turned it around some and use that quite a lot. It’s used to explain the inexplicable or just be deliberately vague to foreigners (those beyond the Sussex county lines, like faraway and exotic Surrey and Hampshire).

“There is something of everything and everything of something.”

Q. What are you most known for amongst your friends and family?

A lot of people consider me kind of odd. I’ve stopped trying to explain myself. Take it or leave it.

Q. Have you ever seen a movie that you thought was better than the book?

One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest and In the Name of the Rose.

Q. Is there a message in your writing that you would want your audience to grasp? If so, what is it?

English woodlands.

Yes, the nostalgia a lot of older people feel for childhood is not necessary. The magic is still there, we just often choose not to see it anymore. Revisit your old childhood haunts, the places where you played or hung out outside of parental supervision. There be dragons. The Wyrde Woods are essentially an unsupervised play area—and through that simplicity achieve a mystical status. Apart from that the books are a celebration of English woodlands to remind people what valuable assets these really are, important in times when the overriding logic seems to be that it is acceptable to destroy our environmental habitat for profits.

Q. Seven is a something of a ‘power’ number in The Redemption of Erâth; it crops up rather frequently. Is there any similar symbolism or talismanic aspect to your own writing?

I’ve used an old rhyme for Escape from Neverland and Dance into the Wyrd and worked that into the plot extensively.

“One for sorrowTwo for goldThree for a girlFour for a boyFive for silverSix for goldSeven for a secret,Never to be told.”

Thank you for your thoughtful answers, Nils—and I can’t wait for people to discover your writing!

As part of my ongoing launch this week, I’m going to be interviewing guest authors here and on the Facebook page. This will be a great way to discover new and exciting authors, and possibly win free copies of their work! Today’s guest is one of my favorite people in all the world, Alexandra Corinth. Alexandra’s first published novel debuted online on the reading/writing site Wattpad, where it quickly garnered hundreds of thousands of reads. She’s also a talented poet and blogger, and I’m proud to have her here this morning!

Q. What do you write, and what inspired you to start?

Interesting question! I am in a weird place with my writing at the moment—while I used to exclusively write YA, I now write just about everything else. I am currently working on a fantasy/fairy-tale-esque novel and a poetry collection of fairy-tale retellings, as well as building a portfolio of short stories and flash fiction to submit to literary journals over the summer.

I started writing when I was seven. I was an early reader, obsessed with books, and when I realized that there were people who made a living writing stories, I knew that’s what I was meant to do. I started by writing long magical stories about a young girl living in Ireland, followed by a slew of plays based on video games that my cousins and I performed every summer in my grandmother’s house. I eventually wrote my first fantasy YA novel when I was thirteen, then another when I was fifteen, another at nineteen and yet another when I was twenty-three. The fourth became The Stories We Tell.

Coffee before I start writing, tea during the writing process. I wish I knew why, but that combination seems to work for me!

Q. Do you have a favorite line that you’ve written? If so, what is it?

I don’t know if I have a favorite line that I’ve written, but one that I am pretty proud of comes from a poem I wrote about a year ago called “carnal.”:

“There is a creature in the mirrorwhere a queen once stood,proud of her sex,a destroyer of destroyers—

I cough, blood on my tongue.”

Q. What are you most known for amongst your friends and family?

Honestly, I am probably most known for my passion for writing! My priority has always been my writing, when I was in grad school and even now, as I’m moving into my possible day-job career, so that’s probably what most people know about me.

Q. Have you ever seen a movie that you thought was better than the book?

Yes! But more importantly, I wish that we would discuss these adaptations in a more complex way. Both of my degrees are in film studies, and the big thing I learned from that experience was how irrelevant fidelity is to my enjoyment of an adaptation. The film version of a book is going to be different—it has to be, because the medium is different! Sometimes a story does better on screen, with actors to deliver the dialogue rather than the voice(s) in my head, with camera angles and editing to develop the characters in a way that text alone cannot. Sometimes a story does better on the page, with all the white space I need to fill in the blanks with my own perspectives. That’s how I like to look at it, anyway, and I have hope that someday we won’t think about book-to-film adaptations in strict fidelity terms.

Q. Is there a message in your writing that you would want your audience to grasp? If so, what is it?

I don’t know if I have a singular message. I mean, I am sure that subconsciously I do, but I don’t like to think about that! : ) That said, the common thread between my YA writing and my current, more “adult” writing is the idea that real life is full of magic, that maybe we just have to look a little closer to find it.

Q. Seven is a something of a ‘power’ number in The Redemption of Erâth; it crops up rather frequently. Is there any similar symbolism or talismanic aspect to your own writing?

Hm! I don’t think so, but again, that’s not something I think about in terms of my own writing, and is probably there without my awareness.

Thank you for your thoughtful answers, Alexandra—and I can’t wait for people to discover your poetry and writing!